Canadiens at midseason: Montreal must find lost identity in second half

MONTREAL — Well, at least the Montreal Canadiens were able to stay in the fun zone for 28 games, which is longer than we would’ve given them after they went winless through eight pre-season games and started the season with four rookie defencemen.

For a brief stint, the second quarter appeared to have been trending as the first one had gone, with the Canadiens following up a 4-0 loss to San Jose on home ice by recording a 2-1-1 record through Western Canada and Seattle. They split games with the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames upon their return to the Bell Centre and everything seemed alright.

The team was competitive, free-wheeling, entertaining, and continuing to defy expectations before it all came undone 20 minutes into a game in Ottawa on Dec. 14.

Including that loss to the Senators, the Canadiens have dropped 11 of 13 games and won just once in regulation. They’ve been outscored 59-25 over that stretch and struggled immensely to deliver a product worth watching.

Injuries kept veterans Mike Matheson, David Savard, Brendan Gallagher and Sean Monahan out of the lineup when the team’s schedule was most demanding — the Canadiens were without all of them for most of their seven-game road trip, which bookmarked the Christmas holidays — and that certainly didn’t help. And with only Savard returning since, the Canadiens have still struggled mightily to regain the form they found in establishing an 11-9-1 that had us referring to them as "a shockingly good team" through the first quarter of the season.

They were about as far away from being “shockingly good” in Game 41, though, suffering an embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Kraken on Monday.

“We’re a young team with a lot of inexperience,” said captain Nick Suzuki after the loss.

He had said the Canadiens had “special guys” and were “very underrated” before the first quarter had come to a close.

The truth lies somewhere in between both his statements.

We suggested at the end of November — with the Canadiens achieving good results despite being in the bottom third of the NHL in expected goals at even strength — a regression was likely coming. But it probably shouldn’t have hit as hard as it did.

“We lost our way,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis as recently as last weekend.

He’s got a big task in front of him over the back half to shepherd the Canadiens back to the fun zone, where they may not win very often but will at least compete and continue to grow into the team both the coach and the fans want to see.

Team Record: 16-22-3, (eighth place in the Atlantic Division, 27th in the NHL)

Goals for: 2.56 per game (29th in the NHL)

Goals against: 3.80 per game (fourth in the NHL)

Power play: 14.8 per cent (32nd in the NHL)

Penalty kill: 74 per cent (23rd in the NHL)

Arber Xhekaj.

The 21-year-old defenceman, who was passed over in the draft each year he was eligible for it, jumped from the OHL to the NHL and immediately made a name for himself — and not just because his last name reads like a Wi-Fi password.

That Xhekaj has played 39 of 41 games, despite St. Louis opting for a rotation out of the lineup at the bottom end of his defence for a stretch when more of his veterans were healthy, says much about the value he’s brought to the Canadiens. We had him making the team halfway through training camp but still would’ve been surprised had you told us then that he’d play as much as he did through the first half of the season.

We’d have certainly not chosen Xhekaj as the player most likely to be leading all rookie defencemen in goals this deep in, but he’s doing it with five so far. He’s also fifth on the list in points with 13, and he’s spent a fair portion of the season quarterbacking the second unit of the power play.

We’re a little less shocked about the six-foot-four, 238-pounder ranking first among all rookies in fighting majors (five) and second in hits (115).

But there’s no doubt Xhekaj’s play in general has been the biggest and best surprise of the season to date.

Joel Armia.

Armia had a rough 2021-22 season to follow a breakout campaign in the Canadiens’ run the to 2021 Stanley Cup Final that earned him a four-year, $13.6-million contract.

We thought, after an excellent world championship for Team Finland, that he’d rebound to at least provide a bit more than he did in his 60 games last season.

But Armia, who had six goals and 14 points then, is actually on pace to have less over 60 games this season after skating through his first 26 with zero goals and only three assists.

He’s since scored thrice over his last three games, but we don’t see him sustaining anything close to that pace, even if he’s been playing much better of late.

The six-foot-three, 216-pound forward has tantalizing skill to go with his imposing size but so rarely combines those assets to play to his potential. He shows flashes within every game, but fizzles more often than he sizzles.

Still, Armia has the whole second half to break that career-long pattern.

It would be great to finally see him do it because watching him through the first half left Canadiens fans with nothing but disappointment.

Armia may have started it injured, but that can’t be the only reason he struggled as much through his 29 games.

Can the Canadiens redeem their early-season identity?

You really have to wonder, given how far they’ve slipped from it of late and how much the roster might change between now and the March 3 trade deadline.

Players will be sold — Monahan, who’s getting closer to returning from the broken foot that’s kept him out of the lineup for over a month, is almost certainly one of them — and that’s going to hurt the balance of the roster we saw through the first 20 games.

It’ll also be another seven weeks before Kaiden Guhle even attempts a comeback from a knee injury, and the Canadiens don’t really have anyone to make up for what the 20-year-old was bringing to their blue line through the first half of the season. Couple that with other injuries hitting — starting goaltender Jake Allen is currently out with an upper-body injury — and it’s going to be tough sledding from here to the end.

Still, we don’t think the Canadiens will be as bad as they’ve shown since mid-December. At least not from a process standpoint.

They’re still going to lose more games than they win and likely end up close to where they currently rank in the standings when all is said and done, but there’s hope they’ll look better doing it as things roll along.

Suzuki will likely redeem his scoring touch in short order, Cole Caufield will likely continue trending towards scoring over 40 goals, other players will likely find a little more success than they’ve enjoyed so far, St. Louis will likely have the Canadiens fighting a lot harder than they did to close the first half, and the entertainment value will likely increase.

If all that happens, at least the Canadiens will recapture their identity. That would be a nice complement to adding futures at the deadline and finishing with fairly good draft lottery odds.